Study: Divorce can compromise health of mothers

ATLANTA — Divorced mothers may have more serious health problems than their married counterparts, a yearslong study of more than 400 women suggests.

Although the news may not come as a surprise to any sick or tired single mother, the study is significant, its authors and others say, because it studied the same group of rural women over many years, what researchers call a longitudinal study.

It found that the divorced women's health fared worse in several categories, suggesting that the adverse effects of divorce on mothers' health lay not only in the acute stressors of divorce but in the chronic stress that comes from being a single mother: parenting burdens, worse jobs and work conditions, lower income and even such things as home repairs due to living in run-down housing.

The study, conducted by the Institute for Social and Behavioral Research at Iowa State University, was published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. While it focused on rural women, the study's authors believe many of the findings apply to those in urban areas, too.

Not only did single mothers have more routine illnesses such as colds and sore throats, but they also suffered more serious illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, down the road and many years after their divorces, according to Frederick O. Lorenz, lead author of the study.

The authors also suggested that single mothers may be vulnerable to the same "chain of adversity" that disadvantaged members of society, such as the poor and minorities, are.

"Part of it is just the loss of a confidant, just having another adult in the household," said Lorenz, a founder of the Institute and one of the study's authors.

Another part is that many single mothers often find themselves without a social network, Lorenz said. "It's a couple-oriented society," Lorenz said. "Being divorced puts you out of what's going on."

Also, married women sometimes shun divorced women out of fear, said Margot Swann, director and founder of the Atlanta-based Visions Anew, a network of divorced and divorcing women who help steer one another through the financial and emotional chaos of divorce.

"They think, `If it can happen to her, it can happen to me,"' Swann said. "It's like a fear of contagion."

Swann, who was divorced about 15 years ago and is happily remarried, said she believes, however, that divorced mothers can do many things to help themselves -- and that other divorced women can help them learn from their experiences.

Visions Anew, for example, offers weekend retreats in which divorced women not only pamper women going through a divorce but also counsel them on legal matters, finances and emotional issues. The divorced women cook for the divorcing women and even provide turn-down service in their sleeping quarters.

Longer term, it is important for divorced women to find ways to soothe themselves each day and to make connections with others, Swann said. In some cases, it may even be important for women to move to another locale if job opportunities are scarce, Swann said.

Some of those things may not be practical for all women, though, particularly if their children are young and their finances strained.

Lorenz said the findings point to a need for public policy changes that might help divorced mothers, particularly those who are poor and who may be inclined to skip regular checkups because their schedules are so busy or their dollars too few.

"I think there's a lot more that could be done from a policy perspective," Lorenz said. "But probably what we're seeing more of is government moving out of the helping sector."